@jason_chen998: At this US visit to China dinner, the most eye-catching figure sitting in the C position between Musk and Cook is Zhou Qunfei, founder of Lens Technology. From a rural migrant worker to China's richest woman, she built her fortune entirely from scratch with no background. Born in a small village in Hunan, her mother died when she was 5, and her father became blind due to a work injury. The family was destitute. At 16, unable to afford tuition, she was forced to drop out and go to...

At this US visit to China dinner, the most eye-catching figure sitting in the C position between Elon Musk and Tim Cook is Zhou Qunfei, founder of Lens Technology. From a rural migrant worker to China's richest woman, she built her fortune entirely from scratch with no background. Born in a small village in Hunan, her mother died when she was 5, and her father became blind due to a work injury. The family was destitute. At 16, unable to afford tuition, she was forced to drop out and go to Guangdong to work. She polished glass on an assembly line in a factory. During the day she worked hard; at night she studied frantically on her own, earning certificates in accounting, computer operation, and other skills. After several years, she took the 20,000 yuan she had saved from working, gathered 8 relatives including her siblings and in-laws, and started a small workshop in Shenzhen processing watch glass. She alone fixed machines and handled sales. This went on for another 4 years. By the 2000s, the mobile phone industry began to develop on a large scale. A chance opportunity led her watch glass factory to receive an order for TCL phone screens. She saw the huge potential in the mobile phone glass market and quickly founded Lens Technology, specializing in the production, R&D, and sales of mobile phone glass. At first, they only made phones for domestic brands and knockoffs. But then, when trying to land an order from Motorola, which had extremely strict quality requirements, she bet almost all her resources to cooperate with Motorola, winning the V3 order that sold over 100 million units globally, directly pushing Lens Technology to an industry-leading position. Subsequently, they successfully secured orders from Nokia, Samsung, and other foreign companies. The key turning point came again in 2007. At that time, Jobs launched the first iPhone, completely transforming phones into all-glass touchscreens. Jobs' demanding process requirements were so high that no manufacturer worldwide could meet them. Zhou Qunfei keenly realized this was another huge opportunity. She led her team to collaborate with Apple engineers for three months, broke through key processes, and successfully mass-produced the first-generation iPhone glass panel. From then on, she secured a long-term contract with Apple. Subsequent iPad, MacBook, and almost all Apple devices were produced by Lens Technology, helping it become the world's largest company in the touch glass panel field. This is why she sits next to Cook. But why is Musk also sitting next to her? After dominating the glass panel market globally, Lens Technology began to expand into more diversified smart device fields, including automotive cockpits and robotics. In the automotive sector, it supplies windows, center consoles, and other components to 30 automakers including Tesla, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Li Auto. In robotics, it is mainly responsible for joints, sensors, and other parts. These are deeply aligned with Musk's businesses. A girl who dropped out at 15 with only a junior high school diploma, who started from scratch in rural Hunan and became China's richest woman, 40 years later sat in a Sino-US meeting, between Musk and Cook. That is the story of Zhou Qunfei.